Welcome back to this Porrato, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the inclusion of tech, business, and politics.

Sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank, Ideas Bank here. I'm Danper Mack on today's show how American companies are trying to dodge China tariffs and the big tech company calling for facial

recognition rules. But first, private equity is still a man's world. So for most Americans,

private equity is a vague boogeyman, something they hear about every now and then from politicians,

or maybe from a newspaper columnist when a local company goes out of business. But the reality

is that private equity impacts almost

all parts of our lives, from what we eat, to what we wear, to how we work, to even where

we live. Overall, private equity-owned companies account for around 5% of America's GDP

and employ nearly 6% of all American workers. That's 9 million people.

But when it comes to the people at private equity firms making the decision, they're almost all exclusively men.

Research firm Prequin recently reported that women make up less than 18% of all private

equity employees and just 10% of senior leadership positions.

And when you look at the biggest firms, women are almost entirely

absent from the C-suite, outside of chief marketing officer roles. And unlike in venture capital,

which is an industry, an investment industry of similar age and historical demographics,

private equity isn't doing too much to diversify. That 18% figure has been static for two years, and a recent private equity

conference survey found that only half the firms there are undertaking any internal diversity

efforts, while the rest were either, quote, still thinking about it or, quote, not interested.

Why it matters, again, is that private equity has an increasingly outsized influence on American

life and American employment.

Of all Americans, regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity.

Unfortunately, though, private equity itself is run by a much more homogeneous group

...